Calling All Tech Startups: Oracle Invites Applications For Oracle Startup Cloud Accelerator 2018

Global MNC Oracle is inviting applications from technology startups for the next cohort (2018) of its accelerator program — Oracle Startup Cloud Accelerator — a residential program. The next-gen initiative is focused on helping enterprises and startups reimagine innovation and accelerate growth through partnerships and associations with the best in the ecosystem.

What Is Oracle Startup Cloud Accelerator Program?

Led by Oracle SVP Reggie Bradford, a three-time successful entrepreneur, Oracle Startup Cloud Accelerator opened its doors in India’s Silicon Valley, Bengaluru, in April 2016. In this short span, the program has launched 9 centres across the globe, the latest being in Austin.

“Having started three companies without ever associating myself with an incubator or accelerator, I take it as a challenge to build a global program—an ecosystem, really—that I would find valuable if I were leading a startup today. We’re building an ecosystem that enables tangible business value, customer growth and revenue—for the startups, our customers and Oracle,” said Bradford.

The Oracle program has helped accelerate 25 startups in India since inception and the upcoming cohorts will be the fourth edition for Bengaluru and the second one for Delhi, Mumbai, and Singapore. The duration of each course will be six months and each batch will accelerate a total of five startups.

Oracle has been revolutionising the approach to cloud technology with its three-layers — SaaS, platform, and infrastructure. The Oracle Startup Cloud Accelerator is aimed at providing startups with the requisite access to technology, a go-to-market strategy, a pool of investors, a coworking space, and more.

The biggest benefit for the startups selected to the cohort is that Oracle does not take any equity but offers free cloud credits apart from world-class mentorship and customised curriculum.

Advantages of Joining Oracle Startup Cloud Accelerator

The program, which is led by the research and development team of Oracle, gives startups access to a global community of more than 430,000 customers, which helps the enterprises in co-innovation and co-development. The accelerator program thus, in essence, helps startups connect the three dots of the cone of success: scale, revenue, and mentoring.

And, the global customer access is paying dividends for startups across the global programs seeing revenues and new customers increase due to the Oracle Program.“During the six months of the acceleration process, we were able to secure US$ 500k in revenue from new contracts with Oracle customers. Our partnership with Oracle is just beginning and we are certain we will continue to work together to develop new customer experience solutions for enterprise customers worldwide,” said Marcellus Amadeus, cofounder of Nexus Edge, from the Sao Paulo program.

The Indian startups that were a part of previous cohorts have built their platforms and migrated their core solutions and environments to the Oracle cloud. A few have also integrated their APIs with open APIs from Oracle’s Core Banking Platform. There are also instances of integration of APIs with Oracle’s Retail, HCM Cloud, and Life Sciences solutions, and more.

The Oracle Startup Cloud Accelerator has enabled a number of startups to expand their reach to the European, American and African markets. And, most have already converted to Oracle partners.

The Accelerator has elicited increasing interest from startups every year since it was launched. The startups belong to various industries ranging from BFSI, retail, hospitality, healthcare, and life sciences to deep tech such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), virtual reality (VR) and more.

Who Can Apply?

 Technology companies with proven traction and potential to make an impact

• Companies targeting a large addressable market
• Companies with a defined yet malleable product roadmap
• Founding teams that have been working together for at least six months

The current cohort of the Oracle Startup Cloud Accelerator Program closes applications on June 7 for Bengaluru, June 14 for New Delhi, June 21 for Mumbai, and June 28 for Singapore.

Oracle Scaleup Program

With a mission to empower startups globally and drive cloud-based innovations, Oracle has also launched a non-residential program — the Oracle Scaleup Ecosystem — a virtual program for startups, venture capital firms, and private equity portfolio companies to help them double down on growth.

The selected startups will get access to a vast pool of Oracle resources like its market, mentoring, Oracle cloud credits and discounts, and more. The curriculum is specifically designed to enable enterprises to scale, build revenue, and get access to world-class mentoring.

The Growing Importance of Accelerators in India

In the last one year, 50 accelerators have been opened in India, a 35% increase as compared to 2016. This took the total number of accelerators in the country to over 190. Despite this, there was a dearth of seed investment for startups in 2017. According to the Inc42 Datalabs Funding Report 2017, over $157 Mn was invested across 507 seed funding deals in 2017 in India, a three-year low compared to 2015 and 2016.

This is where startup accelerators are playing a huge role in developed startup ecosystems like the US and China. Considering the fact that India has a deficit of good accelerator programs, the entry of global accelerators like Oracle with their varied experience and expertise is more than welcome here as they’re sure to boost the growth and scalability of startups.

Applications are currently open for the next cohorts for Oracle Startup Cloud Accelerator in Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, and Singapore. Apply now.

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